World Fashion in this Blog.Salwar Kameez,Designs,Skin Mistakes,Beauty Tips,hairstyles,Pictures,Songs&Movies.

Sunday, 25 May 2014

Social Butterfly?

She is a force to reckon with, but do her wings lend her the pretty
air of a social butterfly or the power of an influential queen bee? What
one can say assuredly is that Khadijah Shah has a definite flair for
design; may it be with the classic ornamentation of her bridals, the
pretty but edgy panache of her luxury-prêt or the mass-oriented realms
of designer lawn, where she’s proven herself to be a force with her
spot-on blends of florals, textures and embroideries on unstitched
fabric. With her flagship store in Lahore and now an exciting, upcoming
Élan Vital line generating hype with its comparatively affordable (under
Rs 10,000) price points, Khadijah Shah is certainly steamrolling the
market with ‘Élan’!
It’s no wonder that she’s often likened to Karachi’s powerhouses Sana
Safinaz. Although much younger than the veteran designer-duo,
Khadijah’s certainly chalking out a similar path of success; effectively
dabbling into different sartorial genres; the veritable socialite
designer creating spectacular socialite fashion. Often compared to
Shehla Chatoor for the love both designers share for luxury, it has to
be said that Khadijah is far ahead in the race, having a huge clientele
in the Punjab, a lawn label in her kitty and now Élan Vital, her new
line of prêt a porter that will finally make her label accessible and
affordable.Read More

Khadijah doesn’t consider herself to be a social butterfly, although
she certainly looks the part: the mother-of-two who’s got it all
together, suave in sunshades and a classic jacket at last year’s Élan
Polo Cup in Lahore or dressed in her own creations at fashion week,
meeting and greeting half the audience in the hall! The daughter of
long-time politico Salman Shah and Anila Shah, who originally started
Élan as a small but successful label catering to a niche clientele,
Khadijah knows anybody who’s anybody in Lahore. “I know a lot of people
simply because my family has been based in this city for a long time,”
she explains. “It would be rude if I saw them at an event and didn’t go
to meet them. That hardly makes me a socialite, though. I usually hang
out with just my old friends and barely attend any high-flying media
parties!”
The high-fliers of Lahore love her, though. They flock to her lawn
exhibits in droves, inevitably leading to ‘sold-out’ prints. Élan
wedding wear is the label-du-jour at society weddings and the
luxury-prêt regularly features on red carpets. At fashion weeks, the
hall is packed on the day of an Élan showcase, with a large number of
attendees leaving the venue once Khadijah has taken her bow. This,
naturally, riles other designers showing on the same day but that’s just
how Élan rules the roost in its home-city.
Élan’s tale of two cities
The business of fashion and fashion weeks, however, extends beyond
Lahore. It is alright for Khadijah to orchestrate a grandiose Polo cup
in Lahore, the first one of its kind before all and sundry followed
suit. Logistically, she could handle the event easily from home base and
besides, she’d want her friends and family to be in the guest list. It
doesn’t make sense, though, when she doesn’t maximize upon business
opportunities beyond Lahore, focusing and profiting from the
money-making buzz of Karachi or the glossy sophistication of Islamabad
or making her clothes more easily available to the customers that drive
in from other towns and cities to buy right-off-the-rack or place orders
for trousseau.
For now, Élan’s mélange of prêt and luxury-prêt may be found easily
at the studio and flagship store in Lahore while only capsule
collections are to be found at multi-brand stores elsewhere. Khadijah
may commendably have participated in every fashion week organized by
Lahore’s Pakistan Fashion Design Council (PFDC) but she is yet to
showcase in the country’s ‘other’ fashion capital, Karachi, or in any
other city, for that matter.
Things are about to change, says Khadijah. “I’ve always wanted to be
part of a fashion week in Karachi but hitherto, council loyalty
prevented me from doing so,” she explains. “From its very onset, the
PFDC has provided me with a platform and I felt that, as a council
member, I should ideally show every new collection with my own council.
Only recently though, HSY, who is a founding member of the PFDC, showed
at Karachi’s Fashion Pakistan Week and for me, it highlighted the
opportunities available in the city. I intend to show very soon at a
fashion week there.”
To be fair, despite evading the fashion week circuit, Khadijah has in
the past tried her best to expand business to Karachi. Last year, high
on the success of her bridal fashion week showcase Sultanate, a one-day
Élan trunk show was held at Karachi’s multi-label boutique, Labels.
Customers could walk in, observe the bridal samples expressly flown in
from Lahore, meet Khadijah and place orders. A similar trunk show is in
the pipeline now for the very quirky, latest Art Struck Élan.
“I also continue to stock at multi-labels although it can get
difficult at times,” reveals Khadijah. “At my own store, I can control
the inventory, create monthly stock reports and calculate profits.
Multi-labels, meanwhile, manage myriad different brands. It isn’t always
possible for them to send in monthly records and profit reports for
each and every brand. Stock reports and payments often come in a few
months’ time.”
“Multi-label stores are important because they enable me to reach out
to a wider audience and luckily, I work with some of the most
established stores in the country. Still, it’s far easier to interact
with customers on a one-on-one basis. I definitely have plans for
opening a studio in Karachi and Élan online launches soon.”
“Sold out!”… really?
The very popular Élan lawn, created in collaboration with Hussain
Textiles, similarly seemed to fall victim to the Lahore-Karachi divide.
An exhibition was held in Lahore for this year’s collection followed by
distribution to major stores. The stock for Karachi was sent directly to
a single retailer, Sanaulla, filtering down to other retailers later.
“There was definitely no Karachi-Lahore bias,” asserts Khadijah.
“There were a large number of billboards placed in both cities
advertising Élan lawn. Distribution, this year, simply wasn’t in our
hands. Last year, we handled the distribution of lawn only to realize
that some major, well-known stores refuse to pay on time. Some, in fact,
are yet to pay us for the 2013 prints! This time, we played it safe by
pre-selling the majority of our stock to a distributor who then
circulated it according to his own understanding. Only a very small
amount was set aside for an exhibition we wanted to hold for our
long-term clients in Lahore.”
It was this limited amount, then, that ran out quickly much to the
frustration of customers at the exhibit and lead to criticisms that
false sold out declarations were being made just in order to create
hype. “I never once claimed that we had sold-out and I can’t control
what other people at the exhibit decide to say,” says Khadijah. “Some of
the prints certainly did run out of stock although they may still have
been available at retail stores. I had customers messaging me on
Facebook and Twitter, asking for prints that they couldn’t find;
hate-mail from the smaller cities in the country, demanding why we
hadn’t distributed enough stock to their regions. I couldn’t possibly
have paid these people in order to get them to message me!”
“Designing lawn requires a certain aesthetic and fortunately, I do it
well. I don’t need to create false hype for my lawn to sell well. It’s
very popular all on its own.”
The Élan of retail, or lack of it
Even as her business booms, Khadijah has her critics. Why, for
instance, are the clothes she showcases at fashion week not usually
available for retail? Élan’s retail offerings are often limited to
pretty, buyer-friendly shalwar-kameezes rather than the edgy designs
shown at fashion week. “Élan’s fashion week collections do get
translated to retail but only in the form of wearable silhouettes.
Avant-garde western-wear is great for creating catwalk drama but it
wouldn’t make sense to stock it on retail racks in multiple sizes. Even
our Élan Vital collection is a diffusion line inspired by the doodles
and graffiti-art of our fashion week line, translated on to easy,
wearable silhouettes.”
“Pakistani women, in general, want to wear easy tunics and stitched
three-piece suits. It’s a lesson I’ve learnt through experience. Does
Galliano ever sell the clothes he showcases on the runway, as they are?
Closer to home, don’t Khaadi’s cutting-edge designs get translated onto
basic tunics for their stock in stores? Why would I want to stock
clothes that most customers won’t buy? Off-the-rack designs are always
going to be more retail-friendly while the fashion week designs begin to
get recreated on order immediately from the day following the show!”
Has her familiarity with Lahore’s high-society helped in attracting
in the right, heavy-pocketed clientele? “I don’t think so,” she says.
“Everybody I know has some relative or the other who is a designer.
Clients may come to me initially because they know me personally but
they come again only because they like my work. Knowing the right people
may help in generating interest but sales can only be sustained through
good work.”
“I’ve built this label completely on my own, re-investing and
expanding with my own profits. It’s taken hard work and retail acumen to
make it move ahead.”
Clearly, Khadijah’s penchant for design is balanced by a firm head
for business; an all-important equation as the business of Pakistani
fashion grows bigger, better and stronger. Élan Vital has her stepping
out of her quite lucrative comfort zone into affordable prêt; a clever,
intuitive move as the market for fashion leans increasingly more towards
ready-to-wear. The line is also quite spectacular – the sales are sure
to come rolling in. She’s already hugely popular in Lahore, her lawn is
coveted all over the country and her expansion plans could very well
make her a force to reckon with nationwide. Time will tell.